Holy Homoeroticism, Batman!

Last week, I stumbled onto this panel from an old issue of the World’s Finest comic book featuring Superman and Batman (which was also posted on our Facebook page). I’m sure it was purely unintentional, but it’s still pretty damn homoerotic:

Now, I’m not suggesting anything that hasn’t been suggested countless times already when I say that Batman is probably the gayest of all the major allegedly heterosexual superheroes. And that’s even if you don’t count the nippled Batman:

His close relationships with his best friend Superman and his young ward Dick Grayson a.k.a. Robin the Boy Wonder have always been a little…weird. And does anyone really buy the whole Bruce Wayne/millionaire playboy thing? I’m just saying, if it looks and feels like a beard…

But the most damning evidence for Batman’s alternative lifestyle comes straight from the comic books themselves. I present this evidence below and leave it to you to come make your own decision.

First, let’s examine Batman’s relationship with Superman. The two appeared together in the pages of World’s Finest comics (sometimes with Robin in tow). Check out these randomly selected covers of that title:

But where things get really suspicious is when we turn to Batman’s relationship with the young Robin. You have to wonder about a grown man who takes in a boy trained in circus acrobatics to live with him and makes him dress up in a mask and green short shorts. Could be completely innocent, but, uh, yeah…

In the comic book page below, not only does it look like Bruce and Dick sleep in the same bed, but the whole “boner” thing is pretty disturbing. I’m assuming “boner” meant something completely different back then (God, I hope that’s true). But still, the Joker screaming, “They laugh at my boner, will they?!! I’ll show them!” and the newspaper headline proclaiming “Batman’s Greatest Boner” doesn’t help. And how does one exactly study the “great boners of all time?”:

BTW, when did Batman’s costume turn pink? ‘Cause I’m sure that really works well with the Dark Knight’s mission to strike fear into the heart of criminals:

Holy Brokeback, Batman! Wow. Can’t believe those are real panels in real comics. WTH? Way back in the day I think “boner” meant a mistake, an error, like “blunder.” But even with that meaning these panels suggest a whole lot of hero-on-hero action.

Aloha Bat-Tribe!
Funny stuff! I heard that the first appearance of the Joker he dressed in drag as Carmen Miranda. Drag is not gay, but Batman and Robin has been gay joke material for ever… and when openly gay director Joel T. Schumacher was in charge of the Batman movies, we got rubber butts and nipples… true it was a real cool and bad ass Robin suit… but really, all we care about in good story telling!